Search it

It looks like “Star Wars” fans will have to wait a little bit longer to see the next installment of the popular franchise. Disney announced today that the next film, which currently does not have a title, will be released in December instead of May. It’s not that much of a difference but if you are counting down the days, the seventh month delay could be a tough pill to swallow.

Originally set as a summer 2017 release date, the film will now release in December. Disney’s latest installment “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” also released in December and did quite well in the winter schedule if you remember.

The decision came from Disney and Lucasfilm, which attribute the enormous success of Episode VII at the box-office with the delay of Episode VIII’s release. It makes sense, with other film’s abandoning the same release schedule of “Star Wars” this year, Disney should be able to obtain the same reign over the box-office in 2017. You don’t fix something that works, and Disney is keeping the winning formula going another year.

It should be noted that “The Force Awakens” was the first film in the “Star Wars” franchise to choose a release-window outside of the traditional “summer blockbuster” schedule. If you have been following along, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” broke quite a few box-office records this year – hitting the largest domestic and global debuts in film history.

The next film in the series, Episode VIII, is currently in pre-production but the film is expected to start shooting later next month. Filming will once again take place in London but under a new director. Episode VII’s director, J.J. Abrams, is still attached as one of the film’s executive producers.

Disney also took this opportunity to announce that the new “Pirates of the Caribbean” film will move up its release to take the place of Episode VIII.

In other release-date news, The new Marvel/Sony reboot of “Spider-Man” starring Tom Holland has also been moved. The film was originally set to release on July 28, 2017 but Sony Pictures has bumped-up that release date by two-weeks. The new “Jumanji” film on the other hand is getting moved back. Now the film will release on July 28, 2017 instead of December 25, 2016.